Hi Guys...
A noob here... Ive been shaving with 3/5 Blades Cartridge razors all my life. I am sick and tired of it and want to make the jump to Straight razor shaving. I have set aside a hard budget of $200 for getting my supplies. Can you folks please recommend what I need to buy? And will this budget suffice?

I was thinking about getting a DE Razor instead but shaving with straight razors is what I really wanna do, and skipping the DE level will probably save me some money as well....

You are definitely bolder than I as after 4 years of this, I have yet to take the straight razor plunge. Whipped Dog gets great reviews on his sight unseen deals and I've seen a lot of folks start there.

Although I, too, have not built-up the courage to try a straight razor shave, I can attest to the fact that Larry from Whipped Dog is a very nice and honest guy and very well reviewed. There's nothing to lose by sending him an email with your thoughts and questions.

All you need is a SHAVE READY straight razor. Try it once, if you like it, buy a $15 strop from Star Shaving. You'll 98% probably nick it. Once you get the hang of stropping and don't nick your strop, then you can buy a more expensive strop. You'll eventually want a two piece strop (cotton/linen and leather).

While, you should probably try to keep the costs down by buying a WD or Gold Dollar (and having someone sharpen it), the resale value of a Dovo Best is pretty high, so you won't lose much money either way if you don't rust it.

And that is it. You can spend even more money on stones, but if you want to keep it sharp yourself, the cheapest and easiest way is to just use paste/diamond spray. And you'll have that nice leftover practice strop from your beginner days to use. $10. Enough said. Don't buy stones, they're a waste of money. They're better, but not so much that they're worth the investment.